to put it--"had so brilliantly
distinguished himself"; and then proceeded to present to me the rest of
the officers in rotation, in strict accordance with their rank, all of
whom found something pleasant and complimentary to say. By way of
response, I made a little speech to all hands, crew as well as officers,
in which I expressed my gratification at finding myself in command of so
fine a ship, manned by so fine a crew, and voiced the hope that, not
only should we be able to all work comfortably and harmoniously
together, but also that the Admiral would speedily afford us an
opportunity to add fresh laurels to the _Yakumo's_ fame; a speech which
elicited a quite enthusiastic storm of "Banzais."

Agreeable relations with my officers and crew being thus satisfactorily
established, I took up my quarters onboard, and forthwith proceeded to
"learn" the ship--that is to say, I made myself intimately acquainted
with the localities and purposes of the numerous engines and pieces of
machinery with which she was fitted, the number and positions of her
magazines, and their contents, the number and situations of her torpedo
tubes, the uses of the many fitments to be found in her conning tower,
and in fact everything connected with her working, so that in the hour
of action I might have every detail firmly fixed in my memory, ready for
use at a moment's notice. And wherever I found anything capable of
improvement, I unhesitatingly had that improvement carried out, although
I feel bound to say that I found very little anywhere needing
modification. In this way, and by continually exercising the crew at
such evolutions as could be carried out with the ship at anchor, I very
soon became perfectly familiar with my new command and, as my strength
steadily returned, began to long for the opportunity to test myself as
well as my ship and crew. For during the whole of this time the
_Yakumo_, with several other cruisers, and our four battleships, had
been lying at anchor at our rendezvous at the Elliot Islands, not idle
by any means, but, like the _Yakumo_, "tuning up" for a certain
eventuality, the approach of which we all seemed to sense in some
mysterious way.

And yet, after all, I do not know that there was very much mystery about
it, for our Secret Service agents--of whom there were several in Port
Arthur--informed us that, from the moment when, on that memorable
Sunday, 7th August, one of the first twenty shells fired at the
st